The Development of the Bell Back 400 Organic Edibles Garden

by JD Bell
(Dallas, Texas USA)

Developing the Bell Back 400

Year One

Plot of Medicinal Herbs

First Frost: Great Greens

We live in a typical North Dallas, Texas suburban sub-division where the houses are large, and the yards are not. But there was a patch of our yard off to the side of the house that was somewhat out of the way and outside of the kid’s play area. About a 20×25 foot area that got both morning and afternoon sun in most of it and partial sun in the rest.

After some extensive lobbying of my wife, I set forth to create our own little suburban farm.

Over the last several years we have grown warm and cold season crops including kale, chard, spinach, beets, various lettuce varieties, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and many other edible plants.

In addition, I maintain a pretty robust area dedicated to medicinal herbs such as Dandelion, Marshmallow, Gotu Kola, Echinacea, Holy Basil and Jiaogulan.

From this initial dedicated organic edibles plot, we have expanded our edible yard to include other areas around the house and are looking to expand our crop selections.

We chronicle our adventures in suburban farming at http://www.mylifeinthedirt.com